It says there was supposed to be pictures, and I think we've seen just about everything thats come up and get shot by a camera. -And from those picturees I can definately say, that there isnt anything we doesnt know about out there.. IMO!

There is a picture of this particular creature on the internet somewhere as I remember seeing it about a year ago. The japanese fishermen tried to haul it in but it was so heavy their rigging couldn't hold it and they had to let it go. The thing looked like a half rotten plessiosaur (spelling), but there is definately a picture of it on the net somewhere.

Does anyone have links to these pictures? Thanks!

I remember reading about this a while back. I believe it was discovered to be some type of seal in late stages of decay.

No Basking shark has a dorsal fin that long in proportion to the rest of it's body. If this is a basking shark, rotten or not, I'm a monkey's uncle.

Well, looks like your a monkey's uncle.

Here is the breakdown of the lab analysis, compared to one of a basking shark.

1977 Carcass Known Sample of basking
Amino Acid Sample Shark Elastoidin

4-Hydroxyproline 45 45
Aspartic/acid 54 55
Threonine 25 25
Serine 39 40
Glutamic acid 80 80
Proline 130 125
Glycine 291 290
Alanine 109 110
Cystine (1/2) 7 6
Valine 25 24
Methionine 10 10
Isoleucine 20 20
Leucine 19 19
Tyrosine 43 41
Phenylalanine 12 12
Hydroxylysine 5 6
Lysine 25 26
Histidine 11 13
Arginine 51 53
(Amide-N) (57) (62)

Table 1. Results of Gross Amino Acid Analysis on the Horny Fiber from the 1977 Zuiyo-maru Carcass and Known Elastoidin of a basking Shark (residues/1000 residues). Composition was determined by JLC-3BC liquid chromatography (JEOL Co. Ltd.). Both samples had been treated with NaClO. (Kimura, Fujii, and others 1978).

[edit on 29-4-2005 by LeftBehind]

[edit on 29-4-2005 by LeftBehind]

The carcass in those pictures was never recovered for analysis, the fishermen let it fall back into the sea because of the weight of it.

Aren't alot of Giant Squids found off the coasts of New Zealand when they wash up? I heard a while ago about a giant mound of blubber and stuff that some fishermen pulled up outta the water and it turned out to just be a collection of a lot of different animals. This is probably the same kinda thing, or it's a giant squid that died attached to a whale

Im actually from New Zealand and yes we do get things like this washing up all the time.
not quite the same as a sea monster but giant squid and other such things turn up all the time.
In fact,
about a year 1 1/2 yrs ago me and some family were out fishing in the Bay of Islands.
my cousin hooked a 135kg marlin.
man did he put up a fight!
believe it or not our boat actually got dragged backwards for about 5 minutes before all of a sudden it stopped.
when we got the marlin up to the boat there was nearly nothing left.
just the head and the spine.
all of the meat had been stripped off.
we ended up sending a sample that included a portion of the marlins skin that had what looked like bite marks to the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology.
the reply we got back was that they had matched the marks on the skin to those of a giant squid victim (just a fish not an actual victim) and then worked out the estimated sized of our squid.
15-18m!!!!!
shame we had no proof other than its left-overs.

I have also seen a television show about the above sea creature where it was discovered to be a basking shark. It's been on a couple of times.

Man, that giant squid fishing story is some spooky stuff. Your lucky it didn't drag your boat down too!

[edit on 4-8-2005 by librasleep]